


The Kids are All Right

by SeeEmRunning



Series: Run-ins [1]
Category: Criminal Minds, Supernatural
Genre: Gen, Implied pedophilia, Kidnapping, episode rewrite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-11
Updated: 2013-06-11
Packaged: 2017-12-14 15:11:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/838321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeeEmRunning/pseuds/SeeEmRunning
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if, in Criminal Minds 6.09, it was the Winchester boys who were taken?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Kids are All Right

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, so uh...don't read too much into this, okay?

"Sammy?"

"It's Sam." He ran a hand through his hair. "You all right?"

"Fine, you?"

"I'm okay." Dean's green eyes stood out huge against his freckled face, one pupil barely the size of a pinprick. "Sammy, what happened?"

Sam searched his memory frantically. "I don't know!"

"Okay. Okay. That's okay. Do you know where we are? What's in that window?"

Sam tried to stand and hissed as he put weight on his leg. "Think I dislocated my knee."

"Lemme help. C'mere."

Sam limped to where his brother was sitting against the wall and slid down next to him. "What are you gonna do?"

Dean flashed him a bright grin. "Gonna put it back in the socket, Sammy, nothing to it. Just need to see what's wrong." Sam slid the left leg of his jeans up. "Good. Okay, I can fix this. Just the kneecap, that's good. Deep breath, okay? On three." Which usually meant _On two_. "One - two -"

"Ow! Son of a bitch!" Yep. Definitely meant _On two_. Also meant lots of pain. "What's wrong with your eyes?"

"Nothing's wrong," Dean said.

"You're concussed, aren't you." Despite the phrasing, it wasn't a question. Sam had seen enough head injuries in his ten years to know the signs.

"Don't worry about it."

"I'll worry if I feel like it," Sam snapped at him. A minute later, the snappishness leaked out to be replaced by a slight waver. "Dean, what are we going to do?"  
***  
"Mr. Winchester? I'm Aaron Hotchner, with the FBI. Can you tell us what happened last night?"

John rubbed a hand over his face wearily. "I went to bed. Left Dean and Sam out here, told them to bank the fire when they were done. Not that they really need the reminder. Next thing I know, they're not here anymore. I checked around, but I didn't see anything - no animal tracks, nothing. They know better than to leave without telling me where they're going."

"They're ten and fourteen, they might have thought they could handle any problems -" Hotch began, but John cut him off.

"No. They know better. They didn't leave because they wanted to. And they didn't fight, which is a bigger problem."

"How do you know they weren't fighting?"

"I would've heard them. I trained my boys, they can fight better than almost anyone." There was a father's pride, odd in this setting but there nonetheless. "But they didn't fight, and they didn't yell for me."

"Why wouldn't they do that?"

"I don't know." John looked down into Hotch's face. "I really don't know."

"How well can they fight?"

"They're both proficient in hand-to-hand, Dean more than Sam, but only because he's bigger. Dean can throw me, Sam can almost pin Dean. They fight together better than they fight each other."

"Really?"

"Really." John gestured to the bruise on his cheekbone. "Sammy gave me this one last night."

"You were fighting last night?"

"We were sparring last night," John corrected him. "We spar every night. They can defend themselves and each other. I don’t know why they didn't."

"Earlier, you said they didn't need a reminder to bank the fire. Why is that?"

"Their mother died in a house fire when Dean was four. They wouldn't be careless with it."

"Can we have some of Sam and Dean's clothes for the dogs?"

"Yeah. Yeah, of course."  
***  
"He's coming back, Dean," Sam said quietly.

"Remember what we talked about," Dean answered just as softly. Sam nodded and tried to look small and scared; beside him, Dean did the same. The tramp of heavy boots grew louder.

The man appeared just outside the cell and looked in at them with a smirk. Sam swallowed when the man unlocked the gate.

He knelt down and reached inside his jacket. They both tensed - he might have a gun in there - but he pulled out a canteen instead and offered it to him. Sam took it with shaking hands and lifted it to his lips like he was about to drink.

Dean poked his side, which was the signal. He sprung forward and caught the man over the head. Dean followed up with a punch to the jaw. Sam got around back and pulled his small arm around the man's throat, a move he'd learned just the week before. Dean kept him occupied with kicks and punches to the gut.

He was big and strong, but he wasn't trained and they had the element of surprise. It didn't take long for pressure on the man's carotid to knock him out.

"Lock him up?" Sam asked.

"Yeah. Yeah, let's do that." Dean pulled and Sam pushed, and together they got him behind the bars. Sam grabbed the padlock from the ground and locked the bars in place.

"Come on, Sammy," Dean said. "Let's get out of here. Think you can make it up the hill?"

Sam looked at the incline and wondered if they'd hurt themselves falling down it. "Maybe. Can you?"

"I'll manage."

"Lean on me," Sam said. "Just for balance."

"Yeah." Dean's lack of resistance told him just how bad the dizziness was.

"All right, come on." Sam wrapped his left arm around Dean's waist and pulled Dean's right arm around his own shoulders. "Slow and steady, Dean, come on."  
***  
"Sam!"

"Dean!"

Pause.

"Sam!"

"Dean!"

Pause.

Emily pulled up her radio. "Nothing here, you guys got anything?"

"Negative."

"Sam!"

"Dean!"

Pause.

"Hello?"

"You hear that?" Morgan whispered before raising his voice. "Sam? Dean?"

"Keep talking, we'll find you!" they heard.

Emily clicked her mic again. "Hotch, we think we got 'em."

"What do you mean think," crackled over the radio.

"No visual, but auditory."

"Sam! Dean!"

"Keep calling!"

"Are either of you hurt?" They were getting closer.

"I have a dislocated knee and Dean's concussed."

So it was Sam doing the talking. "How'd you get out?"

"Dean hit 'im and I choked 'im out." There was no mistaking the pride in his voice, even at that volume. Morgan and Emily raised eyebrows at each other.

"We're coming to you, boys."

"Think we're close!"

"We see you!" There were two boys just beyond the trees.

"See you too!" the smaller one called, breaking out into a grin. He jostled his brother carefully. "C'mon, Dean, just a little -" He broke off when the taller one sagged suddenly. He struggled to hold the older, taller teen before collapsing himself.

Emily and Morgan broke into a run. "Sam! Dean!"

"I'm okay," Sam called from underneath his brother. "He's out cold, though, concussion must be worse than I thought."

Emily dropped to her knees and the policeman skidded to a stop beside them. "Where is he, boys?"

"Cave about a half mile back," Sam said, jerking his head. "We marked the path with broken branches, shouldn't be too difficult. Key's in my pocket."

"Key?"

"There was a cell," Sam said. "When he opened it and offered us a canteen, we took him down." He grinned, bright and lazy and nothing like a boy his age should be grinning when he was pinned under his brother after being kidnapped and spending the night in a cave. "Think someone can help get this jerk off me? He's kinda heavy and you probably need it."

"Oh, right." Emily blushed a little bit. "I'm Emily."

"Let's get this done," Morgan said, kneeling down. "Is he hurt anywhere else?"

"No," Sam said, "he just got a knock to the head."

"And you dislocated your knee," Morgan said.

"Just the cap," Sam said. "If it was my whole knee I woulda been in real trouble."

"Oh, yeah?" Morgan eased his hand under Dean's back. "Why's that?"

"Full knee dislocation tears ACL and PCL, needs surgery to fix," Sam answered. "Patellar just needs to get wrapped up after it's back in place."

"Interesting that you know that." Morgan carefully lifted Dean off of him.

"Dad made sure we know basic first aid." Sam sat himself up and thrust a hand into the right pocket of his jeans. "Here."

"Thanks, Sam," Emily said, taking the key from him.

"I'll go on ahead," the officer said.

"We're gonna get these two back to town, get them checked over at the hospital," Morgan said. "Sam, can you walk?"

"Yeah," he said. "Might need a little help, but I can walk."

"Wait a second," Emily said. "Sam, is that blood on your pants?"

"Probably." Sam pressed down and winced. "That's a yes." He rolled up his pants leg. "Oh, that would explain it."

"Yeah, it would," Morgan said, looking at the four-inch gash on his leg.

"Sorry, I didn't catch your name," Sam said, looking up at him.

"Derek Morgan."

"Nice to meet you, Derek Morgan." Another bright grin, but this time Morgan saw the glassiness of his gaze. He reached out and felt Sam's forehead.

"You're running a fever, kid."

"Or I'm overheated from carrying my larger brother through the woods and making sure there's a path for your boys to follow," Sam pointed out reasonably.

"I'll give you that one, kid. Now let's go find your dad, he's worried sick."

"Is he okay?"

"He's fine, just worried about you two," Emily said

"All right, let's get you up. I don't want you walking on that leg, kid."

"I can walk."

"You can. Doesn't mean you should. Emily?"

"Yeah, I can get him. You get Dean. Hotch?"

"I'm here," crackled through her jacket.

"Have medics meet us at the campsite."

"Who's hurt and how bad?"

"Dean has a concussion, lost consciousness a few minutes ago. Sam has a gashed leg and a dislocated kneecap, doesn't think Dean's hurt anywhere but his head."

"You trust his judgment?"

"Said his dad trained him in first aid, I assume he asked."

"All right. Medics will be here when you arrive. I'll tell the father."

"And you're sure Dad's all right?" Sam asked quietly.

"We're sure. That's the second time you asked, there a reason you don't believe that?" Emily asked quietly.

"He would've woken up." Sam looked confused. "He should have woken up, he wakes up for everything. One of us should have known what was happening before we both got taken."

"Okay, Sam, this was not your fault, you hear me?" Morgan asked.

Sam looked at Morgan like he was an idiot. "Of course it wasn't. You think I’m stupid?"

"No, no of course not," Emily said quickly.

"It's just sometimes people blame themselves for things that happen to them," Morgan said. "Now come on, let's get you two back to your dad."

"How angry is he?" Sam asked, letting himself be picked up.

"He's not angry," Emily reassured him. "He's just worried. Morgan, you got Dean?"

"Yeah. Let's go."

"So you guys do this often?" Sam asked. "Go hiking through the woods to find missing kids?"

"Not too often," Morgan said.

"Go after killers more, then?"

"Yeah, we do," Emily said. "You wanna go after killers, too?"

Sam shook his head. "Gonna go to college. Be a lawyer."

"A lawyer, huh? Sounds like fun. Our team leader used to be a prosecutor."

"Really?" Sam looked interested at that. "What made him get out?"

"He thought he could do more good finding murderers than prosecuting them," Morgan said.

"Makes sense, I guess," Sam said, shifting a little. "Sure you won't let me walk?"

"Positive," Emily said with a smile.

"S'my?"

"Hey, Dean, you're okay," Sam said quickly.

"Who -" Dean started squirming, trying to get a hand free, and they stopped.

"Dean, Dean, stop! Dean, it's okay."

"Okay? Sammy, what -"

"FBI."

Dean went limp. "Oh."

"You doin' okay, Dean? Anything hurt?"

"Just my pride. Sammy?"

"I'm _fine_ , Dean."

"Don't roll your eyes at me, you little bitch."

"Then stop being so overbearing, jerk."

Morgan looked over at Emily and grinned. "Siblings," he mouthed. She shook her head in astonishment.

"Can you put me down?" Dean asked.

"Sorry, kid, you're concussed. Don't want you tripping over a tree root and making it worse."

"I won't!"

"Can't take that risk, kid."

"My name is Dean," he mumbled, almost petulant, and Sam had to grin. "Hey - Sam, why aren't you wearing the jacket?"

"Because you needed it more," Sam said bluntly. "Didn't want you slipping into shock when you were in and out."

"What's your ETA? The dad's freaking out," Hotch said through the transmitter.

"Five minutes, tops," Emily answered. "Keep him calm, Dean's conscious now."

"Guy's an ex-Marine with a dead wife and missing kids, calm sailed a while ago," Reid's voice said.

"Dangerous?"

"Not to you," Sam answered for him. "But I pity any bears that come sniffing around."

"He's a tough son of a bitch," Dean said muzzily.

"That so?" 

"You got no idea." Dean grinned.  
***  
"So. Happy family, caught pedophile. I'm counting that as a win," Rossi said on the plane.

"Sam and Dean were calmer than I thought they'd be," Prentiss said.

"And they fought well enough to take him down," Morgan said. "Didn't see that one coming."

"Maybe they didn't know what he wanted from Sam," Reid suggested.

"No, they knew," Hotch said. "I mentioned in the hospital that he'd been kidnapping boys for years. Sam looked right at me and said, 'Figured it was something like that. He was too good not to have done this before.' He knew exactly what the guy wanted with him."

"At ten?" Seaver asked. "You think they know that at ten and fourteen?"

"Yeah, I think they do." Morgan frowned. "Wonder how they're gonna grow up."

Thirteen years later, most of them had moved on to bigger and better things, but they had their answer.


End file.
